Saotome Katsumoto and Japanese Anti-War Thought

Volume 3 | Issue 12 | Article ID 1640 | Dec 12, 2005 The Asia-Pacific Journal | Japan Focus "The Most Crucial Education": Saotome Katsumoto and Japanese Anti-War Thought Matthew Penney "The Most Crucial Education": Saotome 295 seats in the Diet. Progressive parties like Katsumoto and Japanese Anti-War Thought the Japanese Communist Party and Social Democratic Party, whose representation By Matthew Penney plummeted in the 1990s, were held to a mere nine and seven seats respectively. Nevertheless, when polled about the Liberal Tahara Soichiro’s Nihon no sengo (Japan’s Democratic Party’s goal of constitutional postwar), a recent work of Japanese popular revision, 62% of Japanese questioned history from one of the country’s best-selling responded that they would not approve of the and most widely read journalists, bears the elimination of the “peace-clause”. [2] This provocative subtitle “Were we mistaken?” [1] suggests that while progressives have failed to This question, asked of the entire postwar secure seats in the Diet, their fundamental period, is representative of a significant current position on war and peace has considerable in contemporary Japanese thought – the idea currency. A significant reason behind this is the that Japan has strayed from the “correct” path prevalence of anti-war images in Japanese and failed to live up to international “norms”. popular culture. In recent years, Japanese debates about war and peace, on both sides of the ideological Author Saotome Katsumoto wrote in 2002 of divide, have been influenced by this view. the “war on terror”: “Terrorism is, of course, a Conservatives play up the idea that theform of violence difficult to forgive, but the war Japanese constitution, which explicitly forbids being waged in retaliation is also violence … participation in armed conflict and thewhere and in what way can we put on the maintenance of military forces, means that the brakes?” [3] For Saotome, war is wrong, and nation has not been able to play a role in world the “war on terror” an unjustifiable threat to affairs appropriate to its economic might. world peace. Saotome, a survivor of the 10 Progressives criticize the JapaneseMarch 1945 American air raid on Tokyo that government’s failure to adequately apologize killed over 100,000 civilians and left five million and compensate the victims of colonialism and homeless, became a popular anti-war author. war for aggression and atrocities. In both He is also a veteran grass-roots socialist views, Japan is abnormal, and incapable of activist and a lifelong supporter of progressive living up to “universals” – either the “universal” politics. After writing for Akahata (Red Flag), right to self-defense and duty to participate in the Japan Communist Party paper in the 1960s international conflicts like the “war on terror”, and the 1970s, Saotome moved into a career as or the necessity to inculcate the view that “war a writer of non-fiction. [4] He is one of Japan’s is wrong” and the idea that past crimes must be most prolific authors on subjects of war and dealt with honestly in the public sphere. peace having written volumes for some of the most significant non-fiction series in the In the 11 September 2005 election, the Liberal Japanese language – the Shinsho series from Democrats won a landslide victory, capturing Iwanami Shoten aimed at adults and the 1 3 | 12 | 0 APJ | JF Iwanami Junior Shinsho and Kusa no ne haha to Saotome has long emphasized the importance ko de miru (Grassroots mother and child see) of anti-war education: “'Those who cannot learn series for children. These works are a staple at from history are doomed to repeat it’ is the public and school libraries across Japan and at warning of philosopher George Santayana and major booksellers. at present, I think that the first thing that we can do for the sake of peace is to know and to learn.” [9] Through education, “universal” values and the “universal” goal “to save succeeding generations from the scourge of war” can be achieved. Saotome’s perspective is not only rooted in local narratives and the image of the Japanese people as victims of war. It draws upon a wide variety of anti-war images. His books include Haha to ko de miru: Nankin kara no tegami (Mother and child see: a letter from Nanking) and Betonamu 200 man nin gashi no kiroku: 1945 nen nihon senryo no moto de (A record of the starvation of 2,000,000 in Vietnam: 1945 under Japanese occupation). Photograph of Tokyo in the wake of firebombing of March 10, 1945 Writing on the atomic bombs and the firebombing of Japanese cities, Saotome Saotome’s work highlights peace as asympathetically portrays the plight of Japanese “universal” value. For example, he wrote: “The victims. This “victim’s narrative” exists, twentieth century is often said to be the however, side by side with powerful statements century of war. Of course, in the first half there of Japanese as assailants in war. In the hands of were two world wars and in the second there writers like Saotome, perspectives like victim were various civil wars and conflicts which did and assailant, inside and outside, are not not go away, but we must also turn our eyes to dichotomous but can constitute a a movement in human history to outlaw war.” comprehensive critique of war. The suffering [5] He points to the failed League of Nations brought about through the use of organized and to the United Nations as significant steps violence, be it the suffering of the Japanese in the direction of this “universal” anti-war people in war, the suffering of others at ideal. [6] He also emphasizes the UN charter Japanese hands, or suffering as manifested in and the promise “[t]o save succeedinginternational anti-war symbols like Auschwitz generations from the scourge of war, which and Vietnam, are all conveyed to readers. twice in our lifetime has brought untold sorrow to mankind” as embodying a “universal” goal. I will examine three of Saotome’s major works [7] Saotome quotes Oscar Arias Sanchez, the to highlight the central themes of his former president of Costa Rica, a country that perspective on war. The 1979 children’s title he admires for disbanding its military, who says Tokyo ga moeta hi (The day Tokyo burned), “[y]ou cannot protect us by digging trenches or while primarily concerned with the suffering of putting up high defensive walls. Instead, we Japanese civilians in wartime, also shows the need to educate human hearts to believe in Japanese as assailants in war, thereby goodwill, harmony, human tolerance,providing a critique of Japan-centric narratives. generosity, and sympathy.” [8] In a similar vein Betonamu 200 man nin gashi 2 3 | 12 | 0 APJ | JF no kiroku: 1945 nen nihon senryo no moto de half of the population were born after the end offers a critique not only of past actions by the of the war. [12] The necessity to teach about US and Japan, but also of contemporary Japan. the “tragedy of war” to this group became an Finally, Ikiru koto to manabu koto (Living and important factor in discourses about education learning), published in 1997, uses war to and in historical writing for children. [13] This illustrate Saotome’s philosophy of education was a major concern of Saotome’s, expressed and his understanding of war and peace. In most clearly when he wrote: sum, Saotome deploys both global and local themes to zero in on both international wars "If you ask ‘what day is 10 March?’ I wonder and Japan’s war experiences. how many people can quickly recall the Tokyo air raid? Just recently, while working for a The Day Tokyo Burned certain broadcaster, I put the microphone in front of Tokyo primary school students and In 1979, Iwanami Shoten, Japan’s leading when I asked that question, the children just progressive publisher, inaugurated a non- turned their heads and looked blank. I thought fiction series for children patterned after its that there would at least be one child who most popular line, the Shinsho series. The knows about the Tokyo air raid but the result series introduces historical and culturalwas zero. Although it was something I had themes. The editors wrote: envisioned, I was still surprised and You, the young generation, are standing at the depressed." [14] starting line of your lives … modern society is burdened with many contradictions … the Saotome begins his anti-war appeal and threat of the annihilation of humanity through argument for the importance of remembrance nuclear war, human inequality beginning with and education with the idea of the Japanese the gap between rich and poor … for the peace people as victims of war: and development of mankind, you urgently need to apply yourselves and gain new wisdom. "Like the sorrowful tragedy of the atomic [10] bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, I had wanted to think that children would be Saotome Katsumoto’s Tokyo ga moeta hi, the encouraged to keep in their hearts, in some fifth volume in the Junior Shinsho series which form, the memory of 10 March Tokyo air raid in has since swelled to nearly 500 titles, remains which 100,000 lives were lost in a single night, in print today. Saotome explained: I wrote this as an example of the importance and dignity of book with a desire to tell of my experiences at human lives. However, I wonder if this was only 12 years old, on that day, 10 March, to my own my hope?" [15] child who has suddenly become a middle school student of that same age, and to otherThis attempt to bring about the “peace and members of that generation." [11] development of mankind” begins by recalling the firebombing of Tokyo alongside the These comments fit into a larger trend in experience of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

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